1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for wireless Internet access, and more particularly, to a wireless Internet access system (WLAS) capable of supporting multiple types of traffic.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of wireless data systems have been deployed. In the early 1990's, the IEEE 802.11 standard established interoperability criteria and an interface for 1 and 2 Mbps wireless devices using Direct Sequence and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum for the 902-928 MHz and 2400-2483.5 MHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands. These systems were embodied in products, such as WaveLAN™ (originally developed by NCR and now by Lucent Technologies) and Proxim™. These IEEE 802.11 compliant systems are used for indoor LAN and outdoor point-to-point applications. Other systems, such as the Metricom Ricochet™ system supported data rates up to 28,800 bps for mobile, nomadic computing devices.
Around 1996, digital cellular and personal communications services (PCS) systems emerged. These systems could support data rates from 9.6 kbps (for IS-95 CDMA) to 32 kbps (for PACS). In 1997, the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band was created, which includes three 100 MHz segments in the 5 GHz band (5150-5250, 5250-5350, and 5725-5825 MHz), enabling higher data rates. At the same time, new systems, which included complex signal processing and multiple antennas, enabled higher data rates over complex multipath channels encountered in Wireless LAN applications. These systems included HIPERLAN™, developed by the European community, which supports data rates up to 24 Mbps. Another system, RadioLAN™, supports data rates up to 100 Mbps as a wireless Ethernet replacement system.
The above and other prior art systems, however, cannot provide the mobility and broad area coverage of PCS type systems with the data rates formerly reserved for LAN and point-to-point applications. Therefore, it is desirable to have a method and system for wireless Internet access that overcome the above and other disadvantages of the prior art.